On call serive

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MikeGee

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Baltimore, MD
I am/was the first electrician hired by a company that an hvac and plumbing company. Since my hired jan/08 we have hired 1 forman and another electrician.

There have been talks about starting on-call emergency service (soon). Knowing the other forman in the company do not get called after hours. I am guessing mine wont either. That'll leave 2 guys rotating week to week.

Does this seem right to anyone?
 
MikeGee said:
I am/was the first electrician hired by a company that an hvac and plumbing company. Since my hired jan/08 we have hired 1 forman and another electrician.

There have been talks about starting on-call emergency service (soon). Knowing the other forman in the company do not get called after hours. I am guessing mine wont either. That'll leave 2 guys rotating week to week.

Does this seem right to anyone?
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23 years in business up till July of this year I handled all calls 24X7. I had one guy handle July in August I took it back.

Not a big deal.
 
Most responses from here are more than likely owners

its my personal belief that if a guy has to be on call that he should be paid very well.

$36 to have to stay at home , near the phone and truck - every other week - WOW - no thanks

plus the guy that has to do this winds up doing a fair amount of phone work that is not billable (taking the calls etc) unless they have a service weed them out

the after hours call themselves are for the most part just repairs - if something major (more than an hour or two) then the service call guy should write and estimate and the job gets scheduled during normal hours.

In my humble opinion, the guy having to run out at 7 am on Sunday or 11 pm on a Sat should be paid most of the money for the call and then the company makes their money on the actual jobs that they get when the guy writes them up

just my 2 cents
 
there are definitive guidelines set by the federal and state DOL's regarding on-call...a few years ago Chem-Ed (the parent company of Roto Rooter) paid some hefty fines and back pay for violating them.

Look into the laws of your state and find out what is required...anything else is just a guess...
 
MikeGee said:
That'll leave 2 guys rotating week to week.

Does this seem right to anyone?
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Do you need the money or do you have other income other than your job?

Years ago I was on call all the time and the money was good and I really needed it so it worked out well at the time. At other times in my life I would not have wanted that job at all.

You never know the other guy may want all the night time service calls he can get ( bills to pay & mouths to feed, that sort of thing ). For every job there is someone that it works out for but it may not be you.
 
It sucks! I'm industrial (sewer plants) and on call every 3rd week. $60 and time for any calls that I have to respond to. If I can talk them through it, which many times I can, no pay.That comes up to $0.46 an hour if I don't get any calls! If I do get a call it is usually late at night, so I have to go to bed extra early, just in case........ Don't fire up the grill, go to the grocery store, drink a beer, someone will call. We have guys that want to take the call every weekend but the boss said NO!

I'm just B-ing. It is a great job otherwise! If my body can hang 10 more years.......
 
jimmyglen said:
$36 to have to stay at home , near the phone and truck - every other week - WOW - no thank

just my 2 cents
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When I worked for others I was paid 8 hours for standby plus double time for all calls portal to portal. In my case THEN it was very important as I needed the cash. I took the stand by from any of the other guys.

With you a small new company will most likely have few calls, I worked for a large firm and sometimes we would go weeks without an EM call. That was an additional 8 hours pay for me.

I had a pager and went about my life as normal, with a few interruptions.
 
growler said:
Do you need the money or do you have other income other than your job?

Years ago I was on call all the time and the money was good and I really needed it so it worked out well at the time. At other times in my life I would not have wanted that job at all.

You never know the other guy may want all the night time service calls he can get ( bills to pay & mouths to feed, that sort of thing ). For every job there is someone that it works out for but it may not be you.
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Well I could always use more cash. I do have other avenues for money. I am single no wife/gf or children. Just me. I have mis-managed money for quite some time, so I accidently learn how to budget and manage money.
 
For me it is $100 to be on call about every 7 or 8 weeks. I don't have to stay home during that time, I just have to be available and as much as it stinks to get called out it has always been part of having a company truck. Beyond that it is not like when I do get a call it is for free. It is either time and a half or double time. If it's overnight I might even buy a nice supper on the company credit card. Most of the on call guys that I work with are quite capable Foreman.
 
Our shop is on about a 5-6 week rotation with all the journeymen required to be on call. Two hours of OT each for Sat. and Sun. plus whatever time is spent on actual service calls, billed portal-to-portal.
 
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